Sue's Craft Cupboard

Monday, April 13, 2015

Travelling and Junk Journals

My love of traveling - both overseas, and in Australia is enhanced by my love of documenting these travels in photographs, and in my own hand-made Junk Journals. I make a journal specifically for a forthcoming trip - using favourite saved papers, envelopes, Travel Brochure pages and lined and blank papers, some painted papers and then I sew these together into a cover. I edge some pages with Washi Tape, add newspaper/magazine words, estimate locations and add some travel brochure pictures to various pages. I use a mixture of of sizes of papers - some narrower so that I can add tags, tickets, cards etc., some made into envelopes and flaps and some envelopes as pages. Then I'm ready to go, with a glue stick, a small pair of scissors, some washi tape and a few favourite pens and markers.OVERSEAS

During December and January my husband and I visited Central Europe - beautiful cities, magnificent buildings and some snow! Lots of museum and art gallery visits, train journeys and flights, newspapers, magazines, brochures and fliers - so lots of wonderful souvenir papers in Czech, Polish, German, Turkish.

I usually make my Travel Journals with folded A4 papers and a slightly larger cover. Easy to carry around and work in!I work in my journal every day that I'm away - in a train, in waiting areas, airports, and at our accommodation. It becomes a travel diary as well, where I document the events of each day.

I took a smaller journal - a watercolour book for practicing sketching and playing with paint.

TASMANIAWe recently went on a Caravan Trip for 3 weeks in Tasmania and that entailed another Journal, and working in it as we traveled there via the Melbourne to Devonport ferry.

I had quite a few small pieces of leftover paper on my desk and couldn't
resist making a mini arty journal - just for little pieces and some doodling. A tiny size that fitted in my handbag for those waiting times.

LOCAL WORKSHOPSI tentatively approached our local library with the journals one day and was thrilled to be offered the job of teaching two workshops for teens, during the Easter School Holiday Program. This entailed lots of preparation and collection of supplies, but the 31 teens who participated completed great sewn hand - made journals that they'll be able to use for photographs, drawing, writing, collageing, collecting or many other purposes. It was great to see their enthusiasm and pride in completing a journal.

Friday, July 25, 2014

ICAD - was JUST WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR - last year when I joined the Facebook group over at Daisy Yellow. Last year doing art on a small 3 x 5 inch index card every day for 61 days made a huge difference to my enjoyment of life, to my mood, to my being present in the moment, to my happiness with myself and my life and my lot in life!

It was the push I needed to be creative EVERY day - and explore the world of Art Journalling.

When Tammy Garcia invited me to design a card as a Guest contributor on Daisy Yellow and the ICAD (Index Card a Day 2014). I felt very honoured and very apprehensive! What to do? How to do it? Has it been done before?

I use a lot of recycled and repurposed objects in my art practices so I decided to follow that path and have the theme - Reuse, Reduce, Recycle - and design an easy technique able to be quickly done by others. Then a quote I found among my text collection also inspired me!"White clarifies space and accentuates form". I set out to design a 3 x 5 card, exploring the quote with index cards, thinly smearing acrylic paint with used plastic store/credit cards and stamping marks with black acrylic paint. I chose some interesting pieces of "junk" from my recycling box and stated experimenting. I made a few cards and added words from my text collection. It was fun to do, very easy and quick - but you need to wait for the paint to dry or use a heat gun.

The quote that started it all - deserved a card of its own!

Cards ready for words.

One completed.

One or two colours can be smeared with plastic cards.Plastic biscuit tray packaging makes great stamp marks with acrylic paint.

Text collection.

Choosing words that appeal.

Paper torn from corrugated cardboard exposes a

rippled area. Can be use flat or on the edge for

stamping with acrylic paint.

Circles from bottle tops, pencil rubbers, tape rolls.

Dragging paint with home made "combs".

Stamping with corrugated cardboard inner layers.

Plastic cards for smearing paint.

Things that are normally designated "rubbish"

can be recycled into great stamps.

AND ...

My card collection - some text has been outlined

for definition, and smudged to 'age' it,

some left with the clear cut edge. I like both.

I love my collection of cards - the white spaces especially and I love doing ICAD! Thank you

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

And I love it! Tammy provides themes and prompts and I've religiously stuck to this - and that in itself is a challenge - a bit like doing what I'm told! (Which I'm not good at - so I can learn that too)

There are well over 1100 members and the inspiration is never-ending. My ideas file is growing daily!

These 5 cards were the "warm-up" cards before the challenge started on June 1st. I'm most proud of my lettering.

Week 1 - all backgrounds are text - and various prompts my favourite is the Circus tent.

It's a great challenge on many levels - setting aside the time, planning and thinking (better than doing crosswords fro the brain cells), doing the art, following the prompts, taking a photo and uploading to FaceBook, and so much fun meeting like minded arty friends in the group!

Friday, June 6, 2014

I participated in the recent 2014 Spring Postcard Swap (European) from my home in Melbourne, Australia where it's been Autumn! And in our Spring I'll participate in the Autumn swap!The swap consists of each participant creating 10 postcards and posting them to 10 people as organised by Hanna of ihanna's blog.I created my cards this time with silk papers collaged on the background and textured recycled paper for each leaf. I stitched a border around each and around the leaf.

I've just received my 10th postcard - yippee! - and they're all very different and delightful.

Most of my cards came from the USA ...one from New Zealand and one from Norway.

Here they are:-

Lovely hand drawn doodles from Cynthia, USA.

Clever sewing themed collage from Claudia, USA.

Bright Gelli Plate printing from Lori, USA.

Beautiful painted and textured/collaged card from Tina, USA.

Fun card painted and printed from Liven, Norway.

Colourful acrylic paint and stitching from Wendy, New Zealand.

Thoughtful garden themed collage from Rosalie, USA

Cute and clever punched owl art from Carol, USA.

Shiny paper and serene photograph with braid from Urska.

Atmospheric acrylic painting from Kathie, USA.

My cards went to Canada, Sweden, UK and USA. Email "thank you"s have been received and I even received this gorgeous postcard as a thank you for the one I sent!

This collaged and painted card is from Wendee in USA to thank me for my card!

I love the surprise when I collect the mail from the letterbox and think about all the postal worker throughout the world who have seen this "Travelling Art". I hope it cheers up their days.I love receiving the gift of hand made art and thank all the above ladies - or "sisters in creativity" as Urska said! Many thanks to Hanna at http://www.ihanna.nu/postcard-swap/ for her inspiration and organization!

ICAD 2014

About Me

I am the eldest in a family of 7 children and my creative side has been evident for as long as I can remember. (I still have dolls clothes that I made when I was about 10 years old - and the doll!)
I love to knit, crochet, sew, write, read, make books, make jewellery, work in the garden and recently I discovered the joy of 'playing' with art again. I attended an Altered Books Course 3 years ago and haven't stopped "playing" with mixed media since. I find all creative pursuits very calming and relaxing and something I do every day - in one form or another.
I worked as a Teacher Librarian for 35 years & as my husband is already retired and keen to travel, I now do casual teaching and try to find more time to be in my "Room"